Pelvic floor condition
Urinary Urgency & Frequency
You are in charge of your bladder.
Spending your whole day in the bathroom or thinking about going? Urinary urgency and frequency are common — and with the right retraining, relief is very achievable.
“You don’t have to spend your whole day thinking about the bathroom. Let’s work on this together.”
What is urinary urgency?
Your bladder is not the one in charge.
Urinary urgency is the strong sensation that your bladder needs to be emptied — caused by the bladder muscle fasciculating or spasming. This is completely normal if the bladder is full and ready to be emptied. Our bladder has mechanoreceptors, which are pressure sensors. As it fills with urine, it stretches and eventually lets you know it’s time to empty. When this system works well, it’s seamless. When it doesn’t, it can take over your day.
The learned habits driving the problem
“Just in case” peeing and “key in door” syndrome.
If we continually empty our bladder before it really fills up, we create a new behaviour. The bladder will only fill a little bit and think it must empty sooner and sooner. Two learned habits are among the biggest contributors to urgency and frequency.
How we treat it
Retraining the bladder — you are in charge.
Treatment is a multi-pronged approach. We need to make sure the pelvic floor itself is in a balanced state — not tight, not weak. Then we address bladder habits that contribute to the negative feedback loop. Additionally, identifying bladder irritants that are individual to each person.
“Urge deferral techniques buy you time — and over time, that window grows. You can get to approximately every 3 hours with the right retraining.”
Common bladder irritants to investigate
- Caffeine (coffee, tea, energy drinks)
- Alcohol
- Carbonated drinks
- Citrus fruits & juices
- Tomato-based products
- Sugar & artificial sweeteners
- Dairy products
The bladder and pelvic floor have an opposite relationship — when the bladder contracts to urinate, the pelvic floor must relax. We can use this relationship to our advantage by contracting the pelvic floor muscles to calm the bladder. Calmly heading to the bathroom when urgency returns tells the bladder that you are in charge. Over time that lengthens the time between trips to a more reasonable window.
Related conditions
You might also be dealing with…
Pelvic floor conditions rarely show up alone. Here are some commonly related conditions we also treat at WildHer.
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